Despite IDF achievements, Gaza City remains a symbolic and administrative stronghold for Hamas. Encouraged by Qatar, the terrorist organization operates a quasi-state emirate from there, complete with "ministries," government offices, a municipality, and an operational, administrative, and logistical system. Gaza City's continued functioning – with Israel's shackled hostages held captive in its tunnels – grants Hamas terrorists and their foreign benefactors the ability to reject all mediation proposals, believing it improves their position.

Israel is now engaged in a heated debate – What is the operation's purpose? Will it secure the hostages' release? Will it advance "absolute victory"? Or is it a weak psychological maneuver to pressure Hamas and other mediators? Can the mere feasibility of an operation serve as leverage against Hamas? And what will be the cost in soldiers' and hostages' lives?

Before the operation beings, its potential impact on the required objectives – freeing the hostages and crushing Hamas – must be assessed. Assuming Hamas' considerations are irrational is a mistake. Hamas leaders operate with their own rational and faith-based logic, rooted in Islamic interpretations of the Quran and Hadith (sayings attributed to Muhammad) that explain Allah's will. For years, sermons in madrasas and mosques have indoctrinated followers with tales promising divine intervention by Allah's angels for "mujahideen," a paradise filled with women, sex, and wine for those killed, and a perfumed corpse if eliminated. Conversely, dissenters face death.

Murder as a religious value

Islamic doctrine demands patience amid the pain, death, and destruction experienced by Gazans, as Zionists also suffer – and victory will come. An Arab proverb captures this – "The difference between failure and victory is an hour of patience and steadfastness." The "mujahideen" are willing to lose both eyes, as long as they can take one Israeli eye. Senior clerics brainwash followers with Muhammad's legacy and fatwas that contradict the Quran's designation of Jews as the "chosen people" inheriting the Land of Israel. These fatwas permit the murder of Jewish women and children to "liberate Palestine." Theological debate contradicting this rigid belief system, even using Quranic verses, is doomed to fail. There is no one to reason with.

Another rational factor (in Western terms) driving Hamas' defiance is support from Islamic Arab states, providing covert and overt financial, operational, and moral backing. The global Muslim Brotherhood, which undermines the security of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Gulf states, operates and incites in these countries, as well as in Europe and the United States. Open supporters include Qatar, Yemen, Turkey, and Syria.

An Arab proverb states, "They made the thief the guard." Qatar is the primary orchestrator of Hamas' bloodshed. Under absurd American protection, Qatar poses as a "mediator" in the hostage crisis while acting as the global Islamic terror bank and propaganda hub via Al-Jazeera. Qatar bears responsibility for funding and promoting Hamas' terrorism and defiance, in line with the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology. The Al-Thani family, ruling Qatar, is accountable for the murder of thousands of Israelis, the deaths of tens of thousands of Gazans, and Gaza's total destruction.

Vision for Israel's collapse

Another rational factor bolstering Hamas is perceived Israeli weaknesses – internal divisions, sensitivity to casualties and soldiers' lives, conscription crises, protests, and statements by Israeli generals and leaders. Above all, the visible anguish of Israeli society over the hostages strengthens Hamas' resolve, aligning with their Quranic vision of Israel's collapse.

Rising antisemitism in Europe further fuels Hamas' defiance. Despite Hamas' murderous massacre and polls showing majority Palestinian support for Hamas in Judea and Samaria, European nations condemn Israel and support rewarding Hamas with recognition of a Palestinian state.

Whereas until October 7, 2023, Hamas was considered a reason for impossibility of a Palestinian state in our region (and therefore the organization was "maintained" by Israel) – now, after proving this organization's murderousness, European countries seek to make it a leader in a state within the family of nations. European hatred of Israel, once in "remission," has resurfaced. Those who failed to destroy Jews in Auschwitz now pursue them in the Middle East to finish the task. For the first time in the history of warfare, the attacked is forced to provide food and aid to its attacker

Having invested its wealth in fortification and recruiting death-seeking terrorists, Hamas attacked Israel and found itself crushed, with thousands of dead in Gaza's streets amid apocalyptic destruction. Its only remaining bargaining chip is 50 Israeli hostages – its last insurance policy. Yet, despite its desperate state, Hamas rejects even a "Beirut model" deal for hostage release and exile, as was done with Yasser Arafat.

The response that could compel Hamas to surrender the hostages is the complete physical destruction of its symbolic and administrative stronghold – Gaza City. Civilians must first be evacuated, followed by relentless aerial bombardment to level the city. After all, continuing the current situation risks the hostages' lives, but the operational assumption is that Hamas will move the hostages during the initial strikes, as they are its last insurance policy. There is no need to send soldiers into Gaza – only to crush and flatten it from the air. The final act should be footage of a column of Merkava tanks advancing along what remains of Omar Al-Mukhtar Street to the Gaza coast, through the ruins of the Rimal neighborhood.

The post What Israel can do to get the hostages out – without going into Gaza City appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

For years, Ramadan was a month of tension that Israel treated with respect and security suspicion, while arranging to allow freedom of worship at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Israel's capital – in the shadow of terrorism directed mainly at Jerusalem. Now, after the IDF crushed Hezbollah and Hamas – who even remembers Ramadan while the "death-seeking" mujahideen are trading in Jewish corpses and hostages, profiteering from humanitarian aid to their people, begging for a ceasefire, and hiding among ruins and sewage tunnels?

On one hand, instead of distributing "halawiyat" (sweets) when Jews were murdered, Hamas members are now extracting the bodies of their terrorist family members from the rubble and from the teeth of wild dogs in the streets. On the other hand, they are trading in Jewish bodies and hostages. Perhaps reducing humanitarian aid might strengthen the fast and possibly distance them from hellfire. Qatar – which supported, incited, and financed Palestinian terrorism – must prepare to receive Hamas criminals, Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian mob that supports them.

Most plays and films during Ramadan deal with Islamic prophecies and its future world domination within the framework of "end times" promises, the greatness of Islam and its conquests – especially from the days of Muhammad and his supporters and, of course, Salah al-Din and his victories against the Crusaders – in short: Sinwar's dreams.

The name 'Ramadan' likely originates from the Arabic root letters r-m-d (related to heat and burning), which corresponds to the Hebrew word "rametz" meaning "scorching heat." This connection makes sense as the month was originally celebrated by nomadic Arab tribes during the Jahiliyyah period, always during the peak of summer. Since Islam abolished the leap year, Islamic dates change and occur sometimes in summer and sometimes in winter.

In complete contrast to the Islamic invaders, Jews lived in the Land of Israel as a permanent agricultural society – not nomadic. Jews have celebrated their holidays there for thousands of years revolving around agricultural seasons precisely according to the Hebrew leap-year calendar. As permanent residents and owners of the land, Jews tied their lives, holidays, and worship to the soil of the Land of Israel, the pilgrimage, and sacrificial offerings in the Temple in Jerusalem as commanded in the Torah.

The idealization of Islamic conquests in "Ramadan stories" is an important motif especially among Palestinians, who are obsessively engaged with how nomads and invaders emerged from the Arabian Peninsula in their raids ("ghazawat") on behalf of "Allah" to our land, on their way to implementing Islamic rule over the world in the "end of days," moving in pursuit of grazing grass, plunder, blood, looting, rape, and murder. This is the fuel that drives Islamic movements from the breeding ground of the Muslim Brotherhood even today.

Seemingly, Muslims attribute to this fasting period a closeness to God and improvement of character in order to gain God's forgiveness and redemption from hellfire. In practice, Ramadan stories generate in the Islamist mob (fasting, religious lessons, incitement, sermons, and "night stories") inflammatory and murderous radicalization starring bearded sheikhs from terrorist organizations who turn every madman, dressed in a thawb and wearing slippers, armed with a knife – into Salah al-Din.

As mentioned, during the Jahiliyyah period, Ramadan was considered a month in which a ceasefire was declared. It was an agreement between the tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. Tradition attributes to Muhammad a saying (hadith) about Ramadan that creates a spiritual acronym from its name: the R representing "Rahma" (mercy), the M representing "Maghfira" (forgiveness), and the D/N representing 'Najat min al-Nar' (salvation from hellfire).

From Ramadan to war, terrorism, murder, and bloodshed

But even Islamic countries (Egypt attacked us during Ramadan 1973, which fell on Yom Kippur) and especially Islamist terrorist organizations have deliberately turned the "rametz" of Ramadan into an inferno of war, terrorism, murder, and bloodshed. Palestinian terrorist organizations have gone further: not only do they choose to wage wars and carry out terrorist attacks specifically during Ramadan, which is sacred to them, but they will always prefer to carry out acts of murder and attacks specifically during Jewish holidays. The recent massacre in the Gaza border communities was also carried out on Simchat Torah and on Sabbath.

The murderous traits embedded in Palestinian "believers" are far worse than those of their ancestors from the Jahiliyyah period. Sinwar's murderous dreams, which included kidnapping civilians, soldiers, and children, raping women (as per Islamic tradition), and trading in bodies (necrophilia), have turned from a dream into an ongoing Palestinian-Hamas nightmare. Instead of the "Mahdi" of the "end times," they are faced with ginger-haired Trump who demands they emigrate from Gaza (a recommended destination is Qatar – the bank of terrorism and Islamic incitement, a land without people – which will be forced to absorb "people" without land).

For Ramadan, Trump demanded the release of the hostages (dead and alive) and announced that he is equipping Israel with powerful deep-penetration bombs. The significance of these bombs is that they can penetrate deep tunnels, Iranian bunkers, and even collapse both the Aswan Dam and the "Nahda" Dam together (if needed). These "end time" scenarios can unite the holiday of Purim (destruction of Haman/Khamenei) with Passover (drowning of Pharaoh's army and forces).

No "mercy" or "forgiveness" will any human being find in the barbarians of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their supporters – only fire and columns of smoke. All those rapists, child murderers, and beheaders "in the name of the merciful and compassionate Allah" who invaded the Gaza border communities on Sabbath – Simchat Torah in October 2023 – will spend Ramadan this year – as a month of murderousness – in collapsing plastic greenhouses.

The post How the holy month in Islam turned into an inflamed mob of 'death seekers' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

At the release ceremony of three Israeli hostages on February 8, 2025, Hamas operatives wearing green keffiyehs (their prophet's preferred color) presented the three hostages for this round of releases in a "pompous" parade, under a massive banner riddled with Hebrew errors titled "The Time of the End" and beneath it "The Flood – The Day After." The banner defiantly declared: "We will be here even after the war."

It was a surreal parade managed by al-Qassam members, who stood on a stage facing the destroyed homes of Gaza residents who had served as their human shields and were abandoned to their fate. The banner featured a grotesque six-fingered fist, highlighting the absurd contrast between the megalomaniacal show of force by the armed "death-seeking" cowards emerging from tunnels, and Sinwar's abandoned Gazan "human shields" – whose homes were destroyed and who were left to their fate in collapsing tents, hungry, sick, mentally broken amid storms of rain and rising sewage.

Before Oct. 2023, Sinwar followed Israeli media with satisfaction. The protesters in the squares emphasized division, factionalism, and discord among Jews. Messages of resistance in the IDF and among its pilots broadcast weakness and defeatism. In his view, the Jews' cowardly army avoided confrontation, practiced containment, and entrenched itself behind walls, fences, and electronic equipment.

Analyzing this data, Sinwar concluded that the Islamic operational code from the Muslim Brotherhood's school of thought, dealing with God's promise to destroy the Jews, indeed matched the Quran's promise. "Bingo," he told himself. The situation on the ground matched the description of Jews in Sura 59 "al-Hashr" (The Exile), as treacherous troublemakers who are divided, and as cowards who fight Muslims only from behind walls or fences (verse 14).

In Sinwar's eyes, the ancient Islamic heritage that he and his comrades had memorized in streets and mosques came alive in vivid colors of blood: "Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud – jaysh Muhammad sawfa ya'ud" (the army of Muhammad will return") - and now, he would be the one to implement the Muslim Brotherhood's role model and their terror arms and eliminate the Jews.

This seventh-century heritage describes the defeat of the wealthy "Khaybar" fortresses in Saudi Arabia, rich in springs and plantations, which were owned by Jews. After they were breached, Muhammad and his men slaughtered the Jews, buried hundreds in a mass grave in Medina's dump, plundered and destroyed the Jewish community of Khaybar and brutally raped their women (Safiyya bint Huyayy ibn Akhtab and Rayhana bint Zayd, for example).

Indeed, the Khaybar vision was copied and implemented in a blood-freezing manner in the cruel massacre that Sinwar and his men carried out against the Jews of the Gaza border communities. In his speech on April 14, 2023, as part of "Jerusalem Day," Sinwar noted that the approaching Arab-Islamic-Palestinian war against Israel is a religious war. This appears in "The Book" (the Jews' Bible) as a prophecy of destruction for Israel, and is quoted in the Quran in Sura (chapter) 17 "al-Isra" ("The Night Journey") in verse 7.

This verse, which Sinwar quoted extensively in his speeches, predicts Israel's destruction for the "second time" at the "time of the end" (the first – in their interpretation – in the days of Nebuchadnezzar). This destruction would occur at the hands of Hamas men under his command. Based on past examples and this Quranic vision, Sinwar was certain that "Allah's men" – Hamas' Nukhba – would cause great harm to Israelis, enter the "mosque" (Jerusalem and the State of Israel) as before, and destroy what the children of Israel had built up.

To fulfill the time of the end promise "secondly" (as appears in al-Isra above), Sinwar chose the Gaza border communities as an "aperitif" for Jews throughout Israel. As is their custom, the Islamists deliberately desecrate Jewish holidays, such as Yom Kippur and Shabbat. This time too, the terrorists set the murder on Saturday and Simchat Torah. The murderous massacre and looting were carried out to the cheers of Gaza residents as an imitation of the slaughter of Khaybar's Jews, and Gazans distributed "halawiyat" (sweets) in the streets while Jews were being slaughtered.

The Islamists' interpretation of Israel's elimination "secondly" is problematic, since contrary to the Quran's interpretation, the Jewish Temple was destroyed twice (Babylon and Rome). This happened hundreds of years before Muhammad's appearance, and before Sinwar decided that Allah chose specifically someone like him as the contractor for Israel's destruction "secondly." Another absurdity arises at the end of that same sura (al-Isra) where Allah actually instructs the children of Israel to "dwell in the land," and that when the "time of the end" comes he will gather them from all corners of the earth to their land.

What is the explanation for the contradiction? According to Sinwar and the Muslim Brotherhood – Allah intends to kill them specifically in the land of Israel using the "Gog and Magog" method. From this interpretation it appears that it is difficult for Allah to eliminate the Jews abroad – without Sinwar and the mujahideen as "subcontractors" – and since Allah needs them to die for him, Sinwar and his murderers will be rewarded with paradise including a brothel of wine, virgins, and eternal youths.

The "Jahiliyyah" (the savagery, murderousness, deceitfulnes,s and ignorant vandalism that preceded Islam) remained a fundamental element in the essence of Islamist heritage and interpretation in its relation to the faith, property, women, and private and national honor of non-Muslims.

Therefore, it is difficult even for Islamists to explain how the same Allah who bequeathed to the children of Israel the holy and blessed land (which is the Temple and its surroundings), the same Allah who determined that the children of Israel are "the chosen people above all nations" – is the same Allah who plans to eliminate them? Did Allah change his mind and choose specifically the Palestinian terrorists, murderers, and rapists of Sinwar and Hamas and their ilk to eliminate the Jews! – How? – After all, in Islam "Allah does not break his promises"!

The ability of Islamic scholars to change Quranic verses into meanings opposite to their original text, to fit their political needs, is truly acrobatic. Doctrinal thought books of the Muslim Brotherhood, speeches, conversations, proclamations and writings published by Hamas outline main lines for their doctrine and motives of Islamic oppressors like Sinwar: "The Jews are the robbers of Palestine and enemies of 'Allah'" – determines Sinwar's school of thought in an attempt to explain how the chosen people and inheritors of the land in the Quran are supposed to become the slaughter and rape victims of the Palestinian mob – despite God's promise.

Many questions remain unanswered: Why would specifically the Palestinian murderers become the inheritors of the holy and blessed land, when Jerusalem, Palestine, and Palestinians are not mentioned at all in the Quran while the Jews – whom Allah chose above all nations and bequeathed the holy land to them – are mentioned dozens of times?

The Muslim Brotherhood, who are the "petri dish" of Sinwar and his men, claim that today's Jews are not the original children of Israel, but rather "Khazar" raiders, colonialists, and other opportunists, who converted to Judaism over the years and were sent in service of international colonialism to forcibly conquer "Palestine" – and must be eliminated as robbers of the land. What then is the legitimacy of the Islamic conquest that appropriated the land of Israel through robbery and murder as a waqf asset?

Radical Islamic interpreters know very well that Judaism – which is not missionary like Islam – makes it difficult for those who wish to convert, and that the very adherence of Jews to their religion, despite their tragic persecution throughout the generations, is proof of the chain of generations. They know that there was no rational interest that should have brought anyone to take it upon themselves to persecute and exploit Judaism no one wanted to join for 2,000 years.

This argument, however, contains a revealing historical contradiction – the same critics overlook how many Muslims throughout history became "instant converts" under the threat of the sword. These individuals were immediately recognized as "legitimate" Muslims simply by reciting the shahada (the Islamic declaration of faith): "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger." This historical pattern of forced rapid conversion stands in stark contrast to Judaism's traditionally rigorous and lengthy conversion process.

In their despair, the Islamists cling to racial theory: they claim Israelis are not "genetic" descendants of the real children of Israel. Those perished long ago, and those calling themselves Jews today are not entitled to inherit the land of Israel. The false argument creates a problem: if the "real" Jews perished – how will Muhammad's end-time prophecy (al-Isra above) be fulfilled according to which God will gather the Jews from all corners of the world to settle in the land at the "time of the end"?

The failure of the murderous Islamic delusion led precisely to the demise of Sinwar and his murderers. The image of divided and cowardly Jews shattered. They united, crossed the walls, entered the heart of Gaza, and eliminated the terrorists in their homes, neighborhoods, and tunnels. When Hamas remnants emerged from their tunnels they discovered that in the streets where Gazans had rejoiced and distributed "halawiyat" as they slaughtered Jews of the border communities, human rags now wandered searching for dismembered body parts of their beloved terrorist relatives among the ruins. Now, the Jews changed the murderers' slogan: "Khaybar Khaybar ya Sinwar – akhadh al-yahud bil-thar," meaning – the Jews have now avenged you also for Khaybar's crimes.

The end is that Hamas did not "liberate" even a grain of Israel's soil, and Gaza's homes were ground to grains of dust and mud. The IDF defeated Hamas and brought about the "end" of Hamas leaders, who were defeated despite the shows and ostentatious signs in ruined squares. The only assets remaining in the hands of the murderers' remnant are the hostages and the exchange ratio (one hostage for hundreds of terrorists), which reflects the enormous value of Jewish life versus the cheapness of the murderers. In light of the Islamist hotbeds of incitement around us, the terrorists must learn from the chain of Palestinian disasters and defeats over the years from the "Nakba" to the "Naksa" to the "Karitha" to the "Ba'sa" – that defeat and death are the end of those who deny God's will who – even in the Quran – bequeathed the land to the children of Israel.

Gaza must not be rehabilitated until Hamas is completely dismantled, and humanitarian aid must be reduced to a minimum until the last hostage is returned. In light of the destruction and death that the "children of Israel" left in Gaza, verse 7 in Surat al-Isra may now be interpreted precisely as the lesson of the "end" for the remaining Islamic terrorists, wallowing in Gaza's mud: "Perhaps your Lord will have mercy upon you, but if you return to evil, we will return (to strike you) and make hell a prison for the unbelievers."

The post The signals Sinwar and his associates spread before Oct. 7 – and the price Gazans must pay appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Everyone was shocked when recent footage emerged showing a militia of armed thugs in Kafr Qasim hitting police officers and causing them bodily harm, all the while warning them they must stop their law-enforcement activity lest "blood will spill." The footage underscores just how bad things are when it comes to law and order in Israel. The absurdity became all the more apparent when it emerged that the militia had reportedly been sanctioned as the de facto police force of the Arab town.  

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The lacking sense of security Israelis feel in the face of the rampant crime in Arab communities is what led to the formation of such militias; they have filled the void left by the police's shortcomings in providing routine security. But the story behind the incident in Kafr Qasim is something else entirely. 

It appears that the Islamic Movement has a thuggish radical militia operating under its nose that wants to create enclaves of religious separatists within Arab communities. The goal is to make all these communities stand apart from the Israeli state and various government institutions in order to "avoid bloodshed." 

The fact of the matter is that this is the precise modus operandi adopted by the Muslim Brotherhood around the world. This violent approach has been used and modified into incitement and terrorism through various mosques and Islamic schools around the world. This is the same ideology that al-Qaida, ISIS, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have espoused. 

Veterans of Israel's security establishment vividly remember how Hamas' military wing got to be what it is, and its story shares a stark resemblance to what has been unfolding in Kafr Qasim. It all began with Islamists who were ostensibly engaged in a justifiable cause: fighting crimes on the streets of Gaza; cracking down on drug dealers, prostitution, illegal sales of alcohol, and other vices. That so-called noble goal was what made them into the strongmen of the Gaza Strip, resulting in the assassinations of various opponents such as communists and collaborators with Israel. Eventually, they began perpetrating terrorist attacks against Israelis.

Back then, these thugs called themselves the "political wing" of Hamas. It began holding talks with Israeli authorities to promote its interests, which included the accreditation of the Islamic University in Gaza and the sanctioning of various other welfare programs. But alongside those seemingly innocent activities, they also engage in incitement, propagating radicalism and recruiting new terrorists to carry out attacks against Israelis. It took a long time until Israel and other countries woke up and realized that the "political" and "military" wings were one and the same. 

When terrorist mastermind Mohiyedine Sharif's home was destroyed in 1998, a little booklet was found in the rubble. Its headline: "Hamas: Historical roots and charter." It was written by al-Qaida founder Sheikh Abdullah Azzam. 

It turned out that Sharif, who was responsible for the deaths of many Israelis, drew inspiration from the global jihad leader. Sheikh Azzam also wrote in his booklet about another work, written by a Syrian Muslim Brotherhood official, describing it as a spiritual guide for how to conquer the world by means of Islam: welfare that can recruit the masses, creating Islamic militant enclaves, deception and tactical partnerships (including with the enemies, such as Hamas' collaboration with Shiite Iran) as a means of obtaining short-term goals and creating false temptations for the enemy, while simultaneously pursuing the path of terrorism to spread fear. 

This is how the Muslim Brotherhood members have interpreted the legacy of their prophet. Islamists are not bound by any agreement, as demonstrated by the breach of the Hudaybiyyah Treaty in 628, signed between Muhammad's followers and the people of Mecca. This is also the case in Egypt and Jordan, when Islamists have repeatedly challenged the authorities, as well as in the strife between the Palestinian Authority and  Hamas. It is also very much present in how the Muslim immigrants have treated their host countries in Europe and beyond by taking advantage of their generosity. 

They still harbor the belief that Islam will one day take over the victim, either by elimination or by conversion and the seizing of possessions through their "own volition." That is how "Palestine" will once again become Islamic: with patience, in stages, and with our willing collaboration of course. 

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The post A phased Islamization of Israel appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The structure directly adjacent to the Gate of Mercy served as a college for Islamic studies until it was closed by the police in 2003 due to Hamas and Islamic Movement activity – financed by Turkey – there. The court order to shut the site down has since played into the hands of both the Palestinian Authority and the Jordanians, who recognize how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is acting to undermine them and other Arab regimes and have therefore accepted the closure with "passive" understanding.

Following the clumsy break-in to the site, waqf officials and Jordanian representatives are trying to explain just where they have been for the 16 years in which the site remain shuttered. The reopening of the site did not in fact result in a change to the status quo on the matter, but the waqf's position has raised Palestinian concerns and reflects an insolent attitude toward Israel.

The structure has never served as a mosque. It has no prayer niche and is designed as a portico due to its purpose as an entrance gate. "Drunk on victory," the motivation of the Jordanians and the Palestinians continues to resonate. The questions that should be asked then are: What is the practical value of the structure in the context of the question of sovereignty and control over the Temple Mount? To what extent has Israeli deterrence and sovereignty in Jerusalem been harmed? Is there a point to returning the situation to its prior status through negotiations, and what is the likelihood of that happening? And what are the odds of, and what price will we pay for, forcefully working toward this goal?

To answer these questions, one must understand the Palestinians' incentive on the Temple Mount. The Palestinians have never had a state, and Jerusalem has never served as their capital. Their demand to establish a capital, by exploiting the Al-Aqsa mosque, seeks to smash Israel and Zionism's national, historical and religious legitimacy. The gaining of footholds on the Mount (Solomon's Stables, the Huldah Gates and the Gate of Mercy) is aimed at turning Al-Aqsa into leverage in their demand for a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem.

Ever since the Oslo Accords, the Palestinians have increasingly held to the illusion that seizing Jerusalem as "their capital," through a takeover of Al-Aqsa, will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state at the expense of both Jordan and Israel, allowing them to kill two birds with one stone: The Jordanians would lose religious legitimacy and implode and the Israelis will lose their religious and national compass as the grounds for their sovereign existence in Zion.

The artificial noise at the mosque was aimed at illustrating how Jerusalem remains a "burning issue" and is far from a done deal. But every Muslim child knows that no religious site in an Islamic city makes it a capital. Mecca and Medina did not become the capitals of Saudi Arabia. Even Jordan, which controlled Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967, did not make the city its capital. One should not assume that the Americans will buy into this foolishness. And the Jordanians? Woe to their inclinations. The Jordanian crown is subject to restlessness at home, where there is a demand to change the constitution so that the monarchy is representative, like in England, in a country in which a majority of the population is Palestinian. That is why they dream in Jordan of the Palestinians in the West Bank being stuck with us, in the model of a weakened state. They understand that, if established, a Palestinian state would threaten them both at home and outside the country's borders.

As a result, while the Jordanians are "for," they are also "against." Absent a response to the Palestinians' fantasies, including in Jerusalem, "Palestine" will not be established, and Jordan will become an "alternative homeland."

As an expression of the dilemma, the Jordanians have created a joint front with the Palestinians, through the preservation of a Jordanian majority on the Waqf Council. King Abdullah understands that if the Hashemite dynasty cedes control over managing Al-Aqsa, which was agreed upon with Israel, the throne will lose its religious legitimacy. They have not forgotten that the Palestinians tried to take control of Jordan and kick out the royal family in the 1970s. This understanding is the motivation for the joint Israeli-Jordanian coordination on the Temple Mount.

As for us, we should keep the Arab parable that "we have come to eat grapes, not kill the guard" in mind. We must emphasize that the joint Jordanian-Palestinian move will not lead to Jerusalem's division but rather a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation, with Amman as its capital.

The post Jordan's survival depends on Al-Aqsa appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The Palestinians Knesset member and Israeli citizens, like her friends in the various Palestinian terrorist organizations, were prepared for a public relations battle to characterize the rape and murder of Ori as another woman being murdered. In other words, some nameless killer with a knife just raped her for the heck of it on a chilly morning, just because she was a woman – not because she was Jewish. Why did the Palestinian criminal arm himself with a knife, cross the security barrier, rape and fatally stab Ori, rather than some random Palestinian woman?

The reason is simple: Every Palestinian who is exposed to incitement in some mosque, on social media, or in speeches by Palestinian leaders, knows that the enemy's blood can be shed. But if he rapes a Palestinian woman (a gender crime) or even secretly has his way with her in private, he'll be slaughtered and his immediate family members will follow him to hell.

After all, Muslims have honor and they are permitted to commit murder to uphold it. So whom are they allowed to rape and murder on the basis of their gender? Jews and Christians, who are defined as weak and out of bounds of the Arab code of vengeance.

Islamic tradition allows captive women to be used as sex slaves, as they are considered spoils of war. The acts of rape and murder the Muslims perpetrated against captive women (including Jews) are familiar to us in the form of the horrors committed by the Islamic State group and during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, where these terrible crimes were carried out as a primitive expression of victory and the forcible impregnation of the enemy's women.

That is the fate of the weak, who are not protected by "tribal law." MK Aida Touma-Sliman knows that most of the Christian residents of Bethlehem and Beit Jala fled for their lives because their daughters were being raped by Muslims from Hebron and Bedouin of the Taamra tribe. That is what happens when Arabs and Muslims see you as weak.

There might be normative moral laws that mostly apply to regular citizens in functioning countries but in the incitement-ridden Palestinian territories, the victims – like Ori – are never the Arab or Muslim neighbors' daughters but rather Jews or other minorities.

Generally, characteristic acts of Palestinian terrorism include murdering Jewish children in their schools and in their beds, slaughtering civilians in a hotel on the eve of a holiday and killing bus passengers and innocent civilians who are just shopping or going about their business.

MK Touma-Sliman isn't trying to condemn a despicable ethno-religious act but rather downplay it merely because of the PR damage it might do to the "Palestinian struggle," which the world is sick of, anyway.

In her idiotic attempt to obscure the fact that the awful crime was prompted by Palestinian incitement and by allowing violence against Jews (and Christians), Touma-Sliman is betraying her role as a Knesset member who is leading the fight against violence against women. She is hurting all the "weak" women whom the inciters among her own people define as killable and expendable.

The rape of Ori is nothing new for the Palestinians. Back in prestate Israel, Palestinian Arabs would rape Jewish women – including minors – in the name of "national liberation" and the legacy of Islam. But then Jewish activism sent the Arab community a clear, powerful message that got around and it stopped. But the rapist-murderer who was captured this week was photographed grinning from ear to ear. Perhaps he and his friends should have things "explained" to them using the old methods?

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Throughout history, the PLO's terrorist tentacles – and the Palestinian "sumud" (steadfastness) at its core – have been funded by Arab countries and the West, in a lethal brew of fearmongering and anti-Semitism. Many of the countries were essentially paying "protection money," either willingly or through blackmail, to help resolve the "Palestinian problem" and out of concern that the PLO would do them harm. Other countries used the organization as an "attack dog," a proxy to pursue their interests.

At the same time, Palestinian terror was used against us as a "bonus" to leverage the PLO's main existence as a corrupt, parasitic and profitable economic entity (similar to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency). The reality, however, has changed. Now the Western coalition is fighting alongside the Arabs against Islamic terror. But everyone remembers that the Palestinian (and their Muslim Brotherhood) architects of terror are in essence the "mentors" for these radical Islamist terrorist groups currently perceived as a global disease.

In the meantime, the Palestinian issue has been marginalized and is threatening to "burn the house down," as the world is focused on the threat posed by Iran and its proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. As Israel's relations with the Arabs gradually improves, the Palestinians are realizing – helped by American aid cuts to UNRWA's budget – the fictitious narrative of Palestinian refugeehood is dissipating.

While Israel is viewed as a vital component in the regional alliance against terror, the Palestinian Authority is still confined in a straitjacket, drumming on about "refugees" returning to Israel in a flood and that Jerusalem – the reason for Zionism – will become their capital through international pressure.

How, then, can the PA president – who orchestrates this terror, collects the protection money and whose existence depends on donor states – dare to reject American aid money earmarked for the security apparatuses assisted by Israel to keep him in power?

The millionaire Palestinian Authority president's brazen rejection of American money stems from Hamas' accusations that he is an Israeli collaborator (which is true), and from the American demand that the PA expose itself to lawsuits by victims of terror. No crime syndicate would concede to having its extortion money return to its victims. PA President Mahmoud Abbas is struggling to internalize that without this collaboration with Israel, Hamas would devour his government and the assets he has amassed through corruption, very similar to the situation in Gaza.

In global marketing terms, it isn't easy to sell a false story about an "imaginary country for a divided nation" whose people kill one another. According to the Arab allegory, "the Gazans are in one ditch and the residents of Judea and Samaria are in another." No magic wand can unite the hostile tribes in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. Even their murderous hatred of the Jews isn't enough.

Now Abbas is preparing to hold separatist elections in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. The Palestinians, it seems, have never earned a shekel that wasn't "protection money." Therefore, in light of the current geopolitical conditions and dwindling "donations," the PA will become a demilitarized Palestinian-Jordanian autonomous enclave in Judea and Samaria.

In Gaza, Hamas' situation is getting worse. The organization is scrounging money through cash-filled suitcases and smuggling from Turkey and Iran, and from its fundraising operatives in Africa and Malaysia; but the people are hungry, crippled and exhausted. Hamas is still pursuing its self-declared goal of exterminating each and every Jew "hiding behind every rock and tree;" but in Gaza the only thing to be found behind the rocks and trees are unemployment, illness, drugs and despair.

Amid the claims and denigrations against Hamas by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that it too has collaborated to sell out the resistance against Israel of some fuel and dollars, Hamas publicly rejected Qatar's cash assistance. In actuality, the money is reaching its pockets with certain conditions attached – and Israel's agreements – through a circuitous and "humanitarian" path via banks and U.N. clerks in Gaza (who are Hamas activists anyway). Hence, everyone is happy: Hamas isn't collaborating with the enemy and Israel remains humanitarian.

The deflated and defeated Hamas, however, is trying to sell the masses a version whereby Qatar's help is actually Israeli "protection money" in exchange for peace and quiet on the border. Gazans are satisfied for now, but Hamas is convincing itself that this is what's actually happening. A grocer once told me that "back in the days" he beat the hell out of a "protection" collector. According to the grocer, the man didn't die but no one ever came back to "collect." This approach seems to work.

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Historical perspective has not been particularly kind to the vision Obama presented in his speech, the regional and global repercussions of which have been destructive. It was at best naïve and romantic to compare a belligerent, unaccepting culture that openly strives to impose Islam on the world to a culture of freedom, tolerance and Western democracy.

At the root of the disaster that swept our region was Obama's grotesque effort to portray concepts like freedom, equality for women and the pursuit of justice as a foundation of the objective values that guide all nations of the world and therefore lead them to have similar aspirations. To his mind, these are not American or Western concepts, but universal desires held by Arabs and Muslims, as well. It is for this reason Obama believes the U.S. had no right to "intervene" in the "freedom" Arab nations choose for themselves.

Obama nostalgically described the landscapes of his childhood in Islamic Indonesia, with its Muslim calls to prayer, and his adolescence in Chicago, where he said the Muslim community prospered and was treated with dignity. In his speech, which reflected weakness in the face of Iranian nuclearization, there was no mention whatsoever of Palestinian terrorism. For Obama, the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict hinged on the end of Israeli settlements and the establishment of a Palestinian state, which he said would be just as entitled to exist as a national home for the Jews.

Obama's convoluted messages transmitted weakness, naiveté, blindness and reflected a failure to see reality for what it is. Looking back, it is clear his positions allowed the dark forces of the Muslim Brotherhood and its metastases - the Islamic State, al-Qaida, Hamas and Islamic Jihad - to break out and sow chaos throughout the Arab world. His weak message also led to the growth of Iranian-Shiite radicalism, whether in the form of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Iraq and Syria, or the Houthis in Yemen. This is how the "Arab Spring" became the Arab sewer of blood, destruction, and millions of refugees from collapsing Arab states.

Last week, U.S. Middle East policy came full circle when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked Obama's destructive policies on that same stage in Cairo. Pompeo depicted Obama's "A New Beginning" speech as the turning point that lead to the weakening of the U.S. and its allies, the abandonment of the Arab regimes, the fall of Mubarak in 2011, the abandonment of the Iranian people who rose up against the ayatollahs, the restoration of Islamic terror, the lifting of sanctions on Iran, the strengthening of the Iranian monster in Syria and other disasters across the Middle East.

Pompeo promised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi the United States would be a force for positive change in the Middle East, which would see the expulsion of Iran and its affiliates and the end of ISIS. It may not have been as flashy a speech as Obama's, but it did indicate a return to a sober and healthy perception of reality.

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In the meantime, the Palestinians continue to engage in a collective battle against Israel's survival. In the racist trial of Issam Akel, sentenced to life in prison and heavy labor, the Palestinians declared it forbidden to sell land to Jews.

This is absurd. All the man did was sell the land back to its legal owners. These are properties the Muslims conquered from the Byzantines in 638 C.E. and which were returned to their Jewish owners in 1967. But from the Islamists' point of view, the rights of the owners of these forcibly conquered lands have expired. Now the Palestinian raiders pretend to be the landowners in our country.

Did the descendants of the Arab feudalists from Lebanon, who sold lands to Jews in the 19tth century, also put their parents on trial?

The Palestinians are trampling on the verses of the Quran that hold that the Jewish people are the chosen people, the inheritors of the land, who will return from all corners of the earth to their promised land. If the Jewish people have disappeared, as they claim to be the case, was the Prophet Muhammad anything more than a historian? They also trample on Christianity. At the same time as they pride themselves on being the "defenders of Christian sites," they claim the story of the First Temple in Jerusalem is a lie and that it was in fact built by our patriarch Abraham in Yemen. Well, if that is the case, where do they think Jesus, "the first Palestinian victim," spent his time? If there was no Jewish temple in Jerusalem, Jesus must necessarily be a legend.

Against the background of the upcoming elections, the former secretary general of the Balad party, Awad Abdul-Fatah, called on Israeli Arabs not to vote. He said the Israeli Left had been weakened and that the dream of turning Israel into a Palestinian state from the river to the sea through political means had expired. Describing Arab lawmakers in the Knesset as "fig leaves" to an "apartheid state," he called for the creation of a "popular alternative for the liberation of Palestine through the strengthening of the Arab street."

In the morning, the Palestinians contemplate the use of terror, and at night they plot to incite Arab citizens of Israel against the regimes of "betrayal and peace." Their activists, the members of the Joint Arab List, work to sow division and "popular resistance," meaning a mass violent revolt to leverage a Western boycott of Israel, use Israel's autoimmune justice system to weaken the country and enlist its supporters on the Left as agents of influence for the idea of national suicide through the creation of a "Palestinian state from the river to the sea."

The Palestinians repeatedly whisper in the Left's ears that our existence here is only temporary and that the Arab street now rising up will yet have its say. Indeed, the demographics and Palestinian schemes unite our ranks, but only the nation-state law will regulate the threat. The trends of incitement in Israel and Jordan are a warning sign of the illusions that "wolves and sheep will live together in peace" (Isaiah 11:6) and instead lead us to the desired solution, which is that the Gaza Strip should go to Egypt and the current demilitarized Palestinian enclave in Judea and Samaria to Jordan. This will result in a unity of language – Arabic, faith – Islam, a flag – four colors, demographics – mostly Palestinian, and history, as it would be another false invention straight out of the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between France and Britain. Those Israeli Arabs interested in joining them would be more than welcome to do so.

The Palestinians are selling a combination of illusions, historical fiction and Israel hatred. Among Arab states, there are those who are now waking up from the brainwashing they've endured. It is only here in Israel that we continue to cooperate with the fraudulent ploy.

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According to this moralistic approach, the proper response to Palestinian murderousness would be for us to imprison terrorists in comfortable conditions, give them an education and medical care, and then free them in deals amounting to blackmail or after they serve part of their sentences, since they are "the future leaders with whom we will make peace."

Those who espouse this approach think that murderers should be treated to improved finances and guilt-ridden negotiations with Israel (over the "crimes of the Nakba") and unilateral messages of peace. They prefer this over killing the killers and razing their homes, since they will just build new homes and new terrorists will spring up.

The moralists couldn't be more wrong. The Palestinians are contemptuous of the stupidity and naiveté of the Left and see these as an asymmetry that holds their salvation, not to mention a weakness and an Achilles' heel via which they can strike at our people. They have grown up in a society in which the tribal code leaves no room for the weak and thinks nothing of the individual other than as a part of a stampeding herd of a collective. Indeed, in Arab society, the individual is valued only when he or she is attacked by someone from the outside, which means that the tribe's collective deterrence has been attacked and it is under threat. In response, tribe members will take vengeance on individuals from the attacker's side.

Our volatile region – in which rape, murder, destruction and bloodshed are always the bread and butter of the Arabs who invaded the Land of Israel – has produced defense mechanisms that have led to a violent code of behavior that shaped and shapes the lives of the villages and nomadic tribes here.

The code, which depends on a kind of balance of deterrence, is outlined in an article by historian Araf al-Araf about "tribal justice." It is still valid in Arab society and provides the formula for "sulhot" ("reconciliations") between warring families or tribes.

In our geopolitical surroundings, where the weak have no chance of survival, the power of the collective lies in tribal responsibility for its individual members as a way of ensuring an advantage of numbers and demonstrating determination. Therefore, the Arab tribes treat their members as responsible for carrying out vengeance or legitimate targets of acts of vengeance.

Because the circle of vengeance encompasses individuals as distant as five familial links from the father of the killer, the people responsible for "sulhot" have adopted their own ways of navigating crises, which have resulted in agreed tribal solutions such as a "hudna" ("cease-fire") and "atwah" (a cease-fire in which a situation remains as is), which allow for investigation, admissions of culpability, compensation, revenge, the taking of a life, apology, or exile. Sometimes, a family will expel a serial killer out of fear that he will expose them to acts of vengeance, allowing him to be killed. That is how deterrence works.

Those who live by the murderous Palestinian tribal code are enacting tribal justice against us, and support the killers as heroes. This is why the Palestinian tribal killers murder Jews freely and are compensated for doing so by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. For them, Israelis are helpless individuals who are unprotected by a tribe, who belong to a moralistic society with a "universalist" legal system that, blind to the local laws of survival, does not protect them.

The moralists among us must realize that even according to the tribal code of the enemy, a killer who is being sheltered by his family is a dead man. His family, if they have not fled, faces exile. According to tribal law, the home of a murderer is given to his victim's family as compensation, or must be demolished (even if it is rebuilt) as per the Arab curse "May Allah destroy your home."

As for exile, there is no more fitting place than the Hamas-run Gaza Strip to take in the families of the killers.

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